News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-24
SHE STOLE IN HER SLEEP.
Explanation of Some Mysterious TheItS
in a Philadelphia House.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 1.-THE mys-
terious disappearance of money from the
room of Miss Mary Henry, who lives
with her brother-in law at No. 436
North Thirty y-eighth street, has COM
pletely puzzled the inmates of that little
home for the last month or two. At
times all the money carefully hidden
away by Miss Henry In places no one
knew of but herself would be taken and
again only some of it. These myster-
ious disappearances were at first thought
to be the work of thieves, and sus-
picion fell upon the servants in the
house. No proofs could be had of their
| guilt however, and so they were dis
charged without reason being given
them for their dismissal. Up to this
time Miss Henry had taken no trouble
to hide her money. Subsequently she
took more care and locked it up in
trunk. She also locked her door upon
retiring, and the suspected persons hav-
ing been dismissed she felt no farther
uneasiness. To her amazement, how
ever, the thefts still continued. Though
she counted her money carefully and put
it away safely, just before going to bed,
she discovered on rising that more than
half of it had disappeared. No one
had any knowledge that she had put
the money in her trunk, and there was
no possible way in which any one could
have found an entrance to her room
while she slept.
This state of affairs continued for
weeks. The lady hid her lucre in the
most out of-the-way places, but all to
no avail. When she counted it in the
a b l,o
| to count, she invariably found there
was part of it at any rate had been alb
stracted. All sorts Of theories were ad-
vanced to account for the mystery, but
each and all were alike unsatisfactory.
On one occasion Miss Henry lost in this
manner upward of $500, and her total
losses must aggregate almost as many
thousands. At last she gave up keep
ing any money by her other than small
| change, and this was always missing in
the morning. A curious feature of the
affair was that nothing but money was
taken, and although her jewelry, watch
and chain, rings and trinkets were left
lying on the bureau at night, they were
never disturbed.
Determined to make another effort to
solve the mystery, Miss Henry induced
sible aid her in arriving at conclusion.
Ten dollars in new one-dollar bills we're
hidden under the mattress upon which
they slept. Towards morning her sis.
ter was awakened by feeling the mat
tress raised. Opening her eyes, she dis
covered some one, robed in white, kneel-
ing beside her, with arm outstretched
under the bedding. Terror stricken,
she could not move, but watched with
wide-open eyes. The next moment the
STOPPING figure rose and she recognized
Miss Henry herself. The crisp new
bills were in her hands. Her sister
made no sound, but gaZed curiously at
her, and discovered that her eyes were
closed and that she was evidently fast
asleep. Miss Henry walked calmly to
the stove, which was in one corner of
the room tore three or four of the notes
into fragments and threw them into the
fire. Then she unlocked her room door
and crawled into bed. Her sister called
her and found she was still asleep. Miss
Henry, on awaking, had difficulty in
believing the story told her. but her
sister is confident she saw all she re-
lated. 1t was never known before that
the girl was given to somnambulism.
Miss Henry is in hopes that if this be
the solution of the problem, much of the
missing money she has rehidden while
asleep somewhere in the house will some
day come to light.